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Hard
work. Heavy lifting. Long hours.
Dick Keigley knows them all too well. He spent
more than two decades running Italian restaurants
throughout the country. After that came a full-time
pool construction and maintenance business.
Then about two years ago, pain in his left groin
started slowing him down.
“At first it was just a little twinge,” the Kennedale
resident says. “I thought it would subside, but I
was wrong.
“The pain hindered my work. In the end, it was
so excruciating I could hardly walk.”
An MRI found an inguinal hernia, which is a gap
in the muscle near the groin. In Dick’s case, part of
the bowel protruded through the gap near the testicle.
Dick turned to general surgeon Gary Alexander, MD,
FACS, at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center, who
had treated him in the past.
“He’s such a good guy, and his technique is
awesome,” Dick says. “He’ll give you all the time
you need and explains things very thoroughly and
to the point.”
A common concern
Dr. Alexander says inguinal hernias are common in
both men and women, because the groin is a naturally
weak space in the human anatomy.
“We usually recommend surgery, because once you
have a hernia, it doesn’t go away,” Dr. Alexander says.
“If your job requires heavy lifting, as Mr. Keigley’s
does, the hernia will just get bigger, leading to
more complications.”
Dr. Alexander performed a classic hernia repair,
which required only one 4-centimeter incision near
Dick’s waistline. During the outpatient procedure, the
surgeon places mesh over the gap in the muscle, and
over the next couple months, scar tissue forms to keep
the gap closed.
Life without pain
Dick was only in the hospital a few hours, and as the
weeks passed, his pain disappeared.
“I feel awesome,” he says. “It used to be that every
day I’d dread getting up, even walking down the
hallway. And now I get up and get ready and go to
work and do my thing, and I’m pain-free. I’m happy
with the surgery and especially with the outcome.”
READY FOR RELIEF
If you live with hernia pain, the surgeons on the
Methodist Mansfield medical staff can help. Find one
today at
MethodistHealthSystem.org/GeneralSurgery .Closing
the gap
Dick Keigley can
keep up with his
pool business after
his hernia repair at
Methodist Mansfield.
“I feel awesome,”
he says.
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Methodist Mansfield Medical Center
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❁
Winter 2014 – 2015
HERNIA REPAIR
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